How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bike
"Sometimes [biking] strikes me as an intricate form of torture. In his book the triathlete Dave Scott wrote that of all the sports man has invented, cycling has got to be the most unpleasant of them all. I totally agree." --Haruki Murakami in his memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About RunningI read this paragraph just a few days after I starting biking the long (for me) ride between Minneapolis and St. Paul. His words spoke to my soul.
Cycling any sort of distance is a completely new experience for me. Turns out I hate it. And I love it. On one hand, biking gives me agency over my transportation (I'm carless, so I rely on public transportation). I get exercise and don't have to wait on street corners at odd hours of the day or night. In many cases it's actually faster than taking the bus, and I'm the slowest biker in the world! The universe!
On the other hand, I completely agree with Murakami that biking feels like exquisite torture. Each time I push the pedal down, the seat wedges itself further into my sensitive parts. I used to think running hills was hard -- and then I started biking up them. Also, wind. Cursed wind.
There's a period of adjustment that comes with every new activity, especially when you're coercing your body to use muscles in a foreign way. I'm still floundering in that adjustment period, forcefully introducing the idea of saddle soreness and wind resistance to my unwitting lower half.
Like all things, I know it will get easier with time. And the benefits? Completely worth the nether-region numbness.
It sounds like you might need a new seat, my friend. Actually, you may consider trying a different bike altogether to see if you have more fun on something a) lighter or b) differently built. You deserve to have fun on your bike and your bike deserves to be seen as a source of fun. I promise you it is more than possible, but finding the right bike is the same as with all relationships -- it only takes one, but it can take a while to find the right one!
Use a recumbent it makes all the difference and will be worth every penny you spend